


Sight of the Sun

by MarsCosta



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romance, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 02:23:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17889710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarsCosta/pseuds/MarsCosta
Summary: On a sleepless night, Jughead reflects on how he got everything a man can want from life.Based on the song "Sight of the Sun" by fun.





	Sight of the Sun

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! Welcome to this small all fluff one-shot I wrote for a tumblr prompt @miss-eee sent me a while ago. I hope you like it! 
> 
> Thanks to Maria (@indiebughead) for looking this over!

* * *

 

Jughead laid wide awake, despite it being the middle of the night. It wasn't the first night he had ever been plagued with insomnia and it wouldn't be the last. As usual, the lack of sleep made his mind swirl, lost in thought. This time, the first thing on his mind was that he ought to find time to fix the curtains. All the city lights coming from the outside were as pretty as they were annoying, according to Betty.

He looked down from the orange and yellow lights reflected on the ceiling to see her sleeping peacefully by his side, and a smile found its way to his face upon remembering how they'd gotten together.

After all, it was another one of those cases where life had just been waiting for the right moment.

They had been friends for as long as he could remember. Since kindergarten, it had been Betty, Archie Andrews and him. The three musketeers. As they grew up, their friendship didn't change much.

That is, until they got to that age where boys and girls start paying too much attention to each other. And just as Archie started looking at every girl in the school, Betty started having eyes and feelings for Archie, starting a cycle of awkwardness that was just shy out of a sappy teen novel. At the time, Jughead understood the appeal. His best friend had abs, good looks, a voice to shame even the most talented birds and a heart of gold, what girl wouldn't want him?

He had watched Betty pine for Archie, while Archie was just too dense to notice her. Many times he thought about yelling or shaking the redhead, but something always stopped him.

His own feelings for her, most likely.

When he started noticing girls, she had been the first one on his mind. But between his own shyness and awkwardness, and the fact that she was in love with Archie, he thought it would never happen.

Pushing down his feelings for her allowed him to see other girls, and in no time, he was following the path guys in his age did. First was Toni, a hot pink-haired girl from the Southside. Then Valerie, Anna, and a new girl named Evelyn. And those would be the ones that lasted for over a few weeks.

Fast forward to getting a scholarship and moving to New York City, that part of his life only improved. He knew he sounded like a douche when he admitted he didn't remember most of his one night stand's names,, but that was the truth.

It was this - moving to New York City - that brought him to the moment where everything changed. With Archie and Betty also living and studying in New York, they had this regular once in a fortnight date, where they would go out to catch up and have fun.

That night, somehow, both Archie and him ended up doing what they always did, talking to girls and trying to get lucky, not noticing how it was bothering Betty until she literally called them out on it.

At some point Archie asked if she was okay, and that was when it all came to a breaking point.

“ _Seriously_? I'm far from okay, you idiots! You don’t fucking know how to have eyes for only one person! You always go around with a girl while looking at another! Is it really that hard to keep it in your pants?”

Their first reaction had been to just stare at her, mouths open. And while Archie had tried to explain himself - something about being single now that his latest fling had dumped him - her words had hit Jughead deep. It was then that he finally understood what he was doing and how shallow he'd become. He had been too distracted to stop her from getting up and leaving.

“Jug! Aren't you going to do something? Betty's pissed, man!”

“Shit!” Getting up, he went after her.

She was standing on the sidewalk, hugging herself because of the cold breeze, while cursing at her cellphone.

“You're right. We're being idiots,” he said,trying to wave a white flag.

“You're damn right you were being idiots.” She replied, turning around to face him. “What the hell happened to you, Juggie?! You used to be a sweet and caring guy, and not this Archie Andrews prototype,” she exclaimed.

Her words annoyed him more than she knew.

“Well, isn't this what girls want? What _you_ wanted once?”

“Jesus, Jughead.” She had actually sounded surprised at his words. “I outgrew that years ago, and you know it.”

“Well, maybe I outgrew that loner loser I once was too.”

“Well, I liked that loner better.”

He had laughed at her angry words out of his ever growing annoyance, and up until this day  he still asked himself exactly how they'd ended up arguing outside that bar, and how it brought them here.

“As if! You always had eyes for Archie and Archie alone, Betty! No matter what he did, the nonsense he said nor all the girls he would chase, it was _Archie this, Archie that._ Jesus! And you didn't even care about how awkward it was to be stuck in between the two of you.”

“You were our best friend! It wasn't supposed to be awkward!”

And that's when it happened. _His confession._

“Of course it was! I liked you too!”

How long had they stayed standing there for, staring at each other's face? A few minutes? Longer? It surely had felt like forever.

“What?” She asked, dumbstruck by his words.

“ _Oh_ , you heard me just fine!”

There was another moment of silence, loud in between years of unsaid things between them.

“Jughead. I had no idea.” Shaking his head at her words, he had lit up a cigarette, a part of him knowing it bothered her.

“Of course not,” he mumbled back, taking a drag.

“Jughead. I really never… I didn't know. Why didn't you say something?” When he rolled his eyes at her, Betty shook her head.

“It doesn't matter, Betty. It's been years.”

“Don't do that. Of course it matters, Juggie. We're friends. I mean, we're more than friends. You are my family. You know that.” Her soft words had a way of making him, like always, have a change of heart of some sort. “How about we go somewhere to talk? It's cold out here, my Uber app isn't working and I'm not going back inside.”

 

They ended up walking to her house, talking like they hadn't talked in a long time. And somehow, while on her sofa, drinking the fresh coffee she'd made, they ended up back to the first point of their earlier conversation.

“Can I ask you something?” She asked, her eyes darting to his face while she chewed on her lip."

“Anything.”

“I understand why Archie is always chasing girls, but I never understood why _you_ started doing it.”  

“Because it's what everyone does. Because it's easier,” he replied, shrugging.

“Easier?”

“Come on, Betts. I come with a whole lot of baggage. No girl would sign up for that.”

Ever so gentle and kind, Betty came to sit beside him, leaning on his shoulder. “They would if they knew the real you. Any baggage is worth it. Beneath all the layers, you're quite a catch, Jughead Jones.”

“You really think so?”

“I know so.” He had laughed a little, never knowing how to deal with compliments, before changing the subject.

“I could say the same about you, Betts. You deserve better than Chuck the fuck and his kind.” She laughed hard at the nickname he and Archie had created for her ex-boyfriend, and now, he could definitely say it had been the sweet and melodic sound of her laughter that had made him raise her head from his shoulder with his fingertips, and press a kiss to her lips.

Betty kissed him right back. As they split, she had touched his face gently. “Maybe there was a reason why I was so bothered by you chasing after those other women.”

He kissed her again and somehow, they'd spent the night on each other's arms, just kissing and talking and enjoying each other's company.

It had been weird at first, for the two best friends, the morning after all those words had been said and those kisses had been shared, as the sun shone on them through her white lace curtains. Over coffee and her famous pancakes, they talked about what had happened.

“It's the first time I do this,” he said after swallowing the first bite.

“What?”

“I used to run at the sight of the sun. It’s the first time I ever waited for a girl to wake up, much less one I just kissed. And I have no words to express how much it means to me that you're that girl, Betts.”

“What does this all mean, Juggie? What are you saying?”

“I'm saying that I still… let's say I still like you. And the kisses we shared last night...I don't want it to be a one night thing.” He had swallowed dry, feeling nervous like he hadn't in forever. “If you'd have me, I'd really like to take you out for dinner. At that Italian restaurant you love so much.”

She had smiled brighter than the sun outside when she said, “I'd really like that.”

And the rest… well the rest, as people say, is history.

  


Other than Betty's mother, no one had been the least surprised about them getting together. In Archie's words, _every one had seen it coming, except the two of them._

Once they had finished college, they moved in together to a nice apartment in 7th avenue. Jughead had gotten his first book published and Betty was working at the New York Times.

It was while laying here, on their bed, her head now on his chest, that Jughead realized he had everything he wanted from this life.

If anyone had told his younger troubled self that one day he would be here, and have this with her, he would have laughed and called them liars. Now that life, with a mother who had left him, a father that drank too much and days spent without a proper bed were just… scars from things that used to bother him. Betty had been the one to heal him up, the one to bring down the walls he'd built around his heart.

During all of his thinking, the city outside became just a flicker. If he got up, he was sure he would see the first red, pink and orange lines in the horizon, announcing the dawn of a new day.

Betty moved lightly by his side, her hand moving out from the blankets. He felt his chest swallow with pride and love at the sight of the ring there. She was his. His best friend. His family. His wife. Talking superlatives was never much of his kind of thing but it was impossible to not do so with her. Betty was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

He moved slowly to press a kiss to the top of her head. In a few hours, when she'd wake up, he would tell her how much he loved her. And how much he would always thank her for calling him out on his bullshit that night over five years ago. And maybe, he would also tell her how he had been thinking lately that she would make a beautiful mother.

Yeah. He had everything a man could want from life.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Drop a kudo, comment or bookmark below to let me know what you think.


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